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Ubuntu 10.04 LTS announced, codenamed Lucid Lynx

Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth has announced that Ubuntu 10.04 will be …

Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth announced on Tuesday that Ubuntu 10.04, the next major version of the popular Linux distribution, will be called Lascivious Liger Lucid Lynx. This version is highly significant because it will be offered with long-term support (LTS).

This means that security updates will be available for five years for servers and three years for desktops. Regular Ubuntu releases are only supported for eighteen months. Shuttleworth introduced the LTS concept in 2006 with the release of Dapper Drake. The enhanced stability and longer lifecycle of LTS releases make them appealing to hardware makers organizations that are rolling out large Ubuntu deployments. The last LTS version was 8.04, codenamed Hardy Heron, which was released in 2008.

As some readers may recall, we were a bit disappointed with Hardy Heron because it fell short of the level of robustness that we expected from an LTS release. The timing was particularly bad because it was released during the middle of some rough architectural transitions, like the introduction of PulseAudio.

There could be similar problems with 10.04 as it aligns roughly with the scheduled release of GNOME 3, a major new version of the desktop environment used by Ubuntu. If the new experimental GNOME Shell is introduced at that time, it seems unlikely that the Ubuntu developers will be willing to include it in an LTS release.

In his official announcement, Shuttleworth confirms that the developers intend to be more conservative with the LTS release and will also put a stronger focus on testing and bugfixing. The first alpha release is scheduled to arrive in December and there will be beta releases in March and April. The official release is planned for April 29.

"Lucid will continue our tradition of focusing an LTS on a quality, stable and consistent experience and will require a number of adjustments to the usual plan," he wrote. "Our focus will be stabilisation and bug-fixing across the platform with additional refinements in quality in key areas such as user interface improvements, boot experience, browsing and installing the incredible catalogue of software available for Ubuntu, and continuing our tradition of best-of-breed hardware support."

Consistent with the focus on stability, the announcement doesn't include a long list of planned features. The one major goal that he discusses in the message is performance improvement, particularly in the area of startup time. Earlier this year, Canonical set a goal of achieving ten-second startup for the 10.04 release. They have already taken the first major steps towards achieving that goal in the upcoming Karmic Koala release which boots in 22 seconds on my laptop and in only five seconds on a computer with a solid state drive.

Shuttleworth's announcement explains how the new codename, Lucid Lynx, is an apt mascot for the 10.04 release. The Lynx is "the bow-tie-adorned James Bond of the feline set, so you can bet we'll make sure it's dressed for the occasion," he says. He also notes that a lynx is fast, slim, and predatory. The chosen name was a disappointment here in the orbiting HQ. It seems a bit cliche and practically invites accusations of ripping off Apple's big cat theme. I prefer "Lugubrious Lice" and managing editor Eric Bangeman suggested "Lusty Llama". As usual, we invite you to propose your own alternative codenames in the discussion thread.

Originally posted by coppercore:Lucid Lynx... what, is the cat tripping on acid or something?

It could indeed be entirely appropriate if you attempted to install 8.04 on some systems with SATA only drives. It wasn't until after 8.04.01 was released that these were resolved.

[RANT]Hopefully in 10.04 they will also include a switch in the admin section to turn CTRL-ALT-Backspace on. Yes X...I'm talking to you.....If sw developers are dumb enought to include that key sequence as a hotkey for something it's their own fault. I guarantee you that after a user hits CAB the 1st time they will not do so again unless something hits the fan, like a bad X driver, or needing to reset X because they can't get to shell as X is locked...etc....[/RANT]

Originally posted by Lew Zealand:Since the version numbering uses the convention of year.month, is it intentional the LTS versions arrive two years apart, or is it simply coincidence that the last one was 8.04?

I don't know what changed after Hardy, but Hardy was the last release to successfully display my monitor resolution of 1440X900 (I know I know...) with my integrated Nvidia graphics card (I know I know... I chalk this up to being cheap.)

EXTREMELY frustrating to have functionality break and go backwards on a new release. I'll be on Hardy until I can pony up some cash for a new video card.

I have a feeling driver support is going to be better for external video cards since the number of them are a little more nailed down.

Originally posted by coppercore:Lucid Lynx... what, is the cat tripping on acid or something?

It could indeed be entirely appropriate if you attempted to install 8.04 on some systems with SATA only drives. It wasn't until after 8.04.01 was released that these were resolved.

[RANT]Hopefully in 10.04 they will also include a switch in the admin section to turn CTRL-ALT-Backspace on. Yes X...I'm talking to you.....If sw developers are dumb enought to include that key sequence as a hotkey for something it's their own fault. I guarantee you that after a user hits CAB the 1st time they will not do so again unless something hits the fan, like a bad X driver, or needing to reset X because they can't get to shell as X is locked...etc....[/RANT]

Not that I'm bitter or anything about dumbing down the X interface.

I do remember trying to use CAB to reset my session because the graphics went screwy and I couldn't drop to a TTY. I just assumed that my computer went into a total lockup, so I cut the power.

So Ubuntu has that disabled wish I would have known that. Judging from your post they did this because one of their apps wanted to use CAB? Or did so idiot hit CAB by accident and complained on the forums and they removed it? Then again how the hell do you hit CAB by accident.

I personally love the idea of CAB, Linux is designed so that there is a fairly large separation between the Kernel and the UI itself. I can't remember the last time I had an actual Kernel panic

Originally posted by jgtg32a:So Ubuntu has that disabled wish I would have known that. Judging from your post they did this because one of their apps wanted to use CAB? Or did so idiot hit CAB by accident and complained on the forums and they removed it? Then again how the hell do you hit CAB by accident.

I personally love the idea of CAB, Linux is designed so that there is a fairly large separation between the Kernel and the UI itself. I can't remember the last time I had an actual Kernel panic

If you don't know it exists it is a pretty fabulous way to lose tons of data since there is no meaningful way of asking for confirmation before killing off everything running. I think SUSE had a patch where the first time you did it the PC speaker beeped and you had to press it again.

I'm not sold on this constant updating of Ubuntu. I understand the concept but I think the 6 month turn over is too hectic and too short to be adding features and bug fixes. I would rather see a 9 month cycle and see some notable features, not just faster boot times.

Originally posted by coppercore:Lucid Lynx... what, is the cat tripping on acid or something?

It could indeed be entirely appropriate if you attempted to install 8.04 on some systems with SATA only drives. It wasn't until after 8.04.01 was released that these were resolved.

[RANT]Hopefully in 10.04 they will also include a switch in the admin section to turn CTRL-ALT-Backspace on. Yes X...I'm talking to you.....If sw developers are dumb enought to include that key sequence as a hotkey for something it's their own fault. I guarantee you that after a user hits CAB the 1st time they will not do so again unless something hits the fan, like a bad X driver, or needing to reset X because they can't get to shell as X is locked...etc....[/RANT]

Originally posted by maflynn:I'm not sold on this constant updating of Ubuntu. I understand the concept but I think the 6 month turn over is too hectic and too short to be adding features and bug fixes. I would rather see a 9 month cycle and see some notable features, not just faster boot times.

So, you may be familiar with the fact that Ubuntu was created (among other things) to address the complaint that Debian releases too infrequently, spending time exclusively focused on bug fixing. It's a matter of personal preference, but don't knock the "like Debian but with seminannual releases" distro for releasing too quickly.

Originally posted by maflynn:I'm not sold on this constant updating of Ubuntu. I understand the concept but I think the 6 month turn over is too hectic and too short to be adding features and bug fixes. I would rather see a 9 month cycle and see some notable features, not just faster boot times.

Thats what the LTS releases are for. The others are for those who just absolutely need the latest and greatest (but they still get support and are more than betas or tech previews). To be honest, I like the yearly approach best (longer than ubuntu, shorter than debian). Maybe even stick with a version number until major things change (kernel, glibc, X, gnome). But since we're still waiting on Jesus himself to bring kernel 2.8 when he comes back...

About updating: I don't think an OS needs new features every 6 months. I just don't. There should be an easier way to get new functionality from new versions of software without updating the whole thing.

About updating: I don't think an OS needs new features every 6 months. I just don't. There should be an easier way to get new functionality from new versions of software without updating the whole thing.

Yeah, it doesn't make much sense to me either. And updating takes forever. It's just like if you had to reinstall Windows on an empty partition once every 6 months: It gets tedious, and is a boring, time-consuming process.